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Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

Japanese Super Street Fighter 4 dev team goes over new online modes

Posted on Nov. 16, 2009 at 6:48 p.m.

Azrael has provided another great translation of the Japanese Super Street Fighter 4 development blog where the team discusses the new online modes and replay system in the upcoming title.

Hello everyone. This is Tsukamoto.

Continuing from where we left off next week, a closer look at the network modes! Well then, let's get right down to it with the Replay Channel.

First, tell us about how the Replay Channel came to be.

Shiozaki:
While we were making the PC version for Street Fighter 4, we thought, "isn't there something we could do with the replays?" Our very first image was of producer Ono coming out of the bath in his bathrobe, with a drink on the rocks in one hand while he watched replays, like something out of a comic book (laughs). The basic idea there is that you wouldn't have to touch the controller. "A drink in one hand, petting a cat with the other," or for us, we'd be gathered around a heated table with some oranges. At any rate, we wanted to make it so that you could watch replays without having to press any buttons.

So it would be like watching television.

Tsukamoto:
Ono told us that he wanted a mode where you could just watch, as watching is also fun. The development team had also come up with a similar image, so we felt the same way.

Shiozaki:
We want to see the battles that are taking place all over the world. Taguchi had a lot of requests, including being able to watch without having to use the controller (laughs).

Taguchi:
Watching the replays from Street Fighter 4, regardless of whether they're skillful or not, I felt that it was very interesting. Watching good players is of course great for reference, but also when you watch inexperienced players you can think something like "Ah, he should have thrown a fireball there." When you are playing yourself, you may not think of these things, but watching others play it will come to mind.

In the previous title, the replays were just shown in a list and you didn't really know what it was until you started watching it, so that was a bit troublesome. Its not like you want to watch something in particular, but every time you have to go back to the list and choose something, its a lot of hassle. There are many different ways we should be able to watch replays. For example, if you only want to watch the replays of good players, or if you want to review a fight you just lost to analyze why you lost, or if you just want to kick back and immerse yourself in some Super Street Fighter 4. I believe there are a lot of requests for this, so we're doing our best to meet those and develop plenty of functionality.

It seems like you've already done plenty.

Taguchi:
The Replay Channel was what we wanted to do the most (laughs). I like watching my own replays, but I really enjoy watching other people and getting jealous over what they can do. I think "Man, I can't do that," and try to imitate it anyway but I'm not able to pull it off — personally, I like this kind of thing. Even though there are a lot of videos of the arcade version you can watch online, integrating it into the game is a bit of an innovation for fighting games.

On the technical side, as Shiozaki said before setting it up so that you could watch replays from around the world, one after another, without having to touch the controller was a bit difficult, as within the the game world there are quite a few limits.

Are you making a large server dedicated to replays?

Taguchi:
We can't talk about it too specifically, but as we are using the server for matching and we don't want to put too much of a burden on it, we're coming up with an amicable plan.

Please tell us some specifics about the Replay Channel.

Shiozaki:
We wanted to use the replay function within the Replay Channel, so aside from channel you can just watch while doing nothing, there is a channel that features a BATTLE LOG that is stored as you fight online. Your online fights will automatically be recorded in the log - at a certain point the log will become too full and older battles will be lost, so please save the ones you like into MY LIST.

What is MY LIST?

Shiozaki:
You can save your favorite replays into MY LIST. Of course your own, but also other replays that you like can be saved.

I don't suppose it's possible to show your favorites list to your friends?

Shiozaki:
Yes it is! From MY CHANNEL in the Replay List, you can choose to see your friends MY LIST and watch replays from there.

Is it possible to save replays from a friend's MY CHANNEL?

Shiozaki:
Of course! You can save the replay you view from your friend's list into your own MY LIST. As MY CHANNEL is still connected to the network mode, you can watch with your friend, and go "Ooh!" and "Aah!" together over voice chat.

That seems like fun!

Shiozaki:
It's for those times when you want to say "Yesterday I hit an amazing combo!" or "Check out my amazing play," or "I had a 1-pixel comeback!" You want to show those replays to someone, right? You can get together with your friends and have an exciting battle, and you can have a Rose Bowl-like battle and show those replays to other people.

If you make the replays too easy, then it kind of takes some of the thunder away from the replay you can upload after a win streak in Ranked Mode.

Shiozaki:
The replays from a win streak in Rank Match go into the NEW REPLAY channel. This channel only features the replays from the win streak in Rank Match, so its here where you can watch the serious, high-level play.

Where did the name Replay Channel come from?

Shiozaki:
At first we called it 'Super Street Fighter 4 TV', but as it had a lot of other functions besides just TV, "TV" didn't really feel appropriate. As we made various channels for players to enjoy, we arrived at the name Replay Channel.

How would you like players to enjoy it?

Taguchi:
Hmm, well, as replays aren't fighting, first I'd like everyone to enjoy the online battles - Endless Battle, Rank Match, Team Battle, etc. Then when you feel tired of fighting, or you want to study other people's battles to make yourself stronger, then I recommend checking out the Replay Channel.

Shiozaki:
Replay Channel would be great at snack time. Have pizza and juice, and now in the cold season have oranges under a heated table. Do other things while watching the replay, and then when you get pumped up you can think "Well then, shall I jump in?"

Taguchi:
For beginners, instead of getting right into rank match, they can start off in Endless Battle and once they've improved, work their way to to Rank Match. Then go on to Team Battle - I think that's a fun way to play.

Is development entering into the final stages?

Taguchi:
The other day, we were working on a specific part, and as the deadline drew closer we came to realize we didn't have enough people. We thought "Man, this is bad!" At that point, we all got 2 energy drinks per person and were told "Well then, you understand what you gotta do, right? Good luck!" (laughs).

Shiozaki
The engineers often bring us energy drinks (laughs).

Taguchi:
The staff member who became a lead said "I made it off just 1 drink". (laughs) He patted us on the shoulder and said "Good job!"

What is the response to the current stage of development?

Taguchi:
Not just for the Replay Channel, but we started off with the ideas "How do we want players to enjoy this," or "What kinds of modes or functions would be good as battle tools for players to improve themselves?" We developed based on what we wanted to do (not based on what we thought was possible), so sometimes making it into reality was very difficult. I mentioned before that the "Fight Request" feature was very difficult, but the Replay Channel was really a lot of hardship and complexity. (laughs) But I really wanted people to enjoy a more fun fighting game in Super Street Fighter 4, so now the person in charge of the network mode is really working hard on the whole package.

Shiozaki:
We've accomplished the things we wanted to do from the beginning with the Replay Mode, so I'm happy about that. I want to see people playing Super Street Fighter 4 all day long. (laughs)

Okay, how about a final word to everyone who is looking forward to the Network Mode?

Shiozaki:
Personally, I'd like everyone to make lots of friends. Team Battle, Endless Battle, even just watching replays, its a little different if you can do it together with friends. Its fun by yourself, but with friends it's like EX fun. You loners can of course play without voice chat, but if you gather some courage and meet people, the game becomes even more fun. Yesterday's enemy is today's friend, or telling someone with your fists "Hey, you're pretty good" ... it's like something out of shounen manga (manga marketed to teenage males).

Taguchi:
Before for fighting games, the general feeling was that the home version would be used for practice, but the arcade is where the player would debut and work to become stronger. However with network battles coming about, that's starting to change. I spoke with Ono about this for the previous title as well, but we'd like people to enjoy their gaming life at home as well, so for that we've added various modes. As developers, we've made things based on what we feel would support the players lifestyle, so we hope you view this as a fighting game different from all others before it. I hope you are looking forward to it!

Tsukamoto:
Well, we're finishing up just in the thick of things, but I hope everyone enjoyed. I know a lot of people are clamoring for more info on new characters, and I want to give you answer... but please wait just a little bit more! Next time I'd like to talk about the Bonus Stages.

Well then, see you next time!

Posted by PC on November 16, 2009 at 7:02 p.m. #1

pc version plz capcom

Posted by yay on November 16, 2009 at 7:06 p.m. #2

cool.

Now what about Birdie?

Posted by Kokujin Smash on November 16, 2009 at 7:08 p.m. #3

Didn't read this yet, but just wanted to say that Az is the man.

Posted by PC VERSION on November 16, 2009 at 7:10 p.m. #4

PC VERSION PLEASE

Posted by mr snurb on November 16, 2009 at 7:12 p.m. #5

there's a pc version of blazblue coming out next year. you can play that, second-class citizens.

Posted by Who Says the Japanese Aren't Funny on November 16, 2009 at 7:13 p.m. #6

"Its fun by yourself, but with friends its like EX fun."

Heh.

Posted by Rocketfeus on November 16, 2009 at 8:16 p.m. #7

Why don't they just tell us what we want to know already?

Posted by zf on November 16, 2009 at 8:23 p.m. #8

Thank you for the translation Azrael

Posted by classy on November 16, 2009 at 8:46 p.m. #9

i dont care about pc, maybe a little, would be great for messaging i suppose

nayways this really is turning out to be a SUPER improvement

Posted by Claws on November 16, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. #10

Capcom, please announce PC version!!

Posted by Awesome! on November 16, 2009 at 9:34 p.m. #11

More information that we already knew and frankly don't care about!

It seems like we get 3 new posts everyday all stating the same rehashed information we already knew about. It's getting pretty tiring. How about some new character information or changes to the existing characters?

Posted by hax on November 16, 2009 at 9:54 p.m. #12

all this doesnt mean crap without ggpo

Posted by ^ on November 16, 2009 at 10:13 p.m. #13

how many times do we have to get over this, ggpo won't work w/ SF4

Posted by kara on November 16, 2009 at 10:14 p.m. #14

"that's enough, ON TO MORRREEE!!"
i want new characters announce them already

Posted by Ghouly on November 16, 2009 at 10:23 p.m. #15

What would be NICE for online mode is to allow players to TRAIN themselves (1 on 1 = two humans).

Friend matchmaking is good, but your stats do evolve. In training mode, the crappy "record" feature do not allow you to deal with precise spacing and timing.

Only a human can do that. Please, hear me capcom.

Posted by Ghouly on November 16, 2009 at 10:27 p.m. #16

I obviously meant : whith infinite lifebars, supers, ultras and so on.

It's hard to train a specific move or set of moves for a tournament when you're mate isn't next to you in the sofa.

Posted by 47drift on November 16, 2009 at 10:31 p.m. #17

I must say, it sounds like it would be a blast to work with these guys.

Posted by TSmoov on November 16, 2009 at 11:09 p.m. #18

This is good cool and all, but I'd like to see some new characters by the end of the month.

Posted by Bee on November 16, 2009 at 11:19 p.m. #19

I was hoping they would mention a feature where you can save your replays to an external hard drive so you can upload it online or something. That feature is already available on the Xbox after the update I believe.

Posted by Ponder on November 16, 2009 at 11:29 p.m. #20

#13, opinions differ on that matter.

Posted by Firegod on November 16, 2009 at 11:37 p.m. #21

*yawn*

No offence, I know that capcom is doing the best that they can to keep us interested in the game, as well as to share as much info about what we know as possible, but we need something else......I mean geez, at least a new stage, or music or something.

I know the game doesnt come out till next spring, but hopefully they give us new info by Christmas time.....

Posted by MakeItHappen on November 16, 2009 at 11:45 p.m. #22

Ponder why don't you get some older more graphic intense games working on GGPO. I'd love to even see some last gen games running on GGPO.

Posted by PC version on November 16, 2009 at 11:50 p.m. #23

NAO!!

Posted by the frog-splash lives on November 17, 2009 at 12:33 a.m. #24

seriouly we need more news on characters they have at least 5 more to reveal.

Posted by qial on November 17, 2009 at 12:39 a.m. #25

SF4 doesn't need GGPO per se, it just needs to imitate the roll-back aspect of it instead of delaying inputs. Development schedules probably wouldn't accommodate a replacement of the entire code, but if there was some way to use the GGPO code as reference to implement roll-back in SF4's existing code, they certainly have the means to do it--Capcom owning the rights to GGPO and all. I'm not gonna try and sound like I know dick about programming though; I'm not sure if that would even be possible, either. Although I do recall Backbone implementing roll-back in their own netcode even though it wasn't GGPO ver batim

Posted by ThatGuy on November 17, 2009 at 3:07 a.m. #26

I'm the only one here who appreciated capcom going in-depth about the replay channel and it's features that's on it's way. We'll get new information in time, stop being so impatient. If they give away new stages and characters without regard now it'll leave no surprise for later. (Like Smash Bros Brawl Blog did, knowing Sonic was confirmed is alot, but it wouldn't beat the feeling of unlocking it in game and telling others)

Just for them to tell you you're lieing XD

Posted by Alex.F on November 17, 2009 at 4:53 a.m. #27

The devs are bad-ass.
I'm hoping that they accomplish all their goals with this game.

Posted by SSF4 Hype-r Fighting on November 17, 2009 at 5:27 a.m. #28

I wasn't that interested in the replay channel at first but knowing you can have a favourites list of replays sounds pretty good to me. Also cool you can watch a friend's list of replays. Normally all you can do is tell your fiend how your fights went but now you watch vids of what happened.

Also Capcom know what they're doing. They'll drip-feed us info all the way until release day just to raise the anticipation and hype around SSF4 so we all clamour out and buy the damn thing.

The post above is right, a little patience is required. Everything will be revealed eventually so no need to complain about Capcom not showing any new characters/moves. You can't get to play the damn thing yet anyway even if they did tell you everything you ever wanted is in the game.

Posted by Super Street Hyper 4 on November 17, 2009 at 5:45 a.m. #29

Seeing as how long they kept us showing Deejay,Juri and T-hawk,i'd say they got enough time to talk about how cool the new characters are gonna be etc.

Tho i'd be happy to just have a list with the names of all the new characters.

And the dev-talk is interesting but imo it's killing the hype if they only keep answering questions..(interesting nonetheless!)

Posted by @#11 on November 17, 2009 at 5:51 a.m. #30

More information that we already knew and frankly don't care about!

"It seems like we get 3 new posts everyday all stating the same rehashed information we already knew about. It's getting pretty tiring."
It's all your fault for reading different news sources covering the same news.
It's like saying "Geez, why are CNN, MSNBC and Washington Post all talking about the same thing, it's tiring."

Posted by Ono's Friend on November 17, 2009 at 5:54 a.m. #31

All of you people are going to be very excited. I spoke with Ono yesterday and found out some amazing news while we were having lunch. I swore secrecy but by the end of the week it will be public.

Posted by cactusjack on November 17, 2009 at 5:55 a.m. #32

like everyone says it's stuff we already know but man i have to say i can't wait 4 this game.and this online stuff sounds sweet

Posted by Soul Hoe on November 17, 2009 at 7:20 a.m. #33

Chiming in with another "PC version please", right here. Capcom, hear our plea...

Posted by anon on November 17, 2009 at 8:37 a.m. #34

I'm hoping that when Tsukamoto says to wait for new character info, "a little bit more" ends sometime this month. Or preferably this week.

Posted by PCPCPCPC on November 17, 2009 at 9:02 a.m. #35

PC release, please!

PClease!

Posted by wow on November 17, 2009 at 9:04 a.m. #36

people are so agitated about not having any more news about the game! i hate how the internet has made some people feel like they are owed instant information (twitter anyone?).

Just keep your trap shut and wait for the game, its not like if you know what the all the characters are going to be, you will be able to play them. Stop making pointless demands for news!

I agree with #29... all of this is killing the hype (though i'm sure its an excellent game, but if you know every nook and cranny, the only thing left is being able to execute. discovery is a large part of fighting games)

Posted by yea on November 17, 2009 at 10:05 a.m. #37

amazing how sf4 had no online modes and this game has a ton, good stuff : )

Posted by B on November 17, 2009 at 10:57 a.m. #38

On related news.
Nice, Ilike that, i have some pritty crazy looking battles with my couusen and he usaly plays as ryu and me ken, so all will be able to see true SF players lol. Or maybe you beat the number 1 ranked person, o ya yourgonna wanna save that.

Posted by Focusflute on November 17, 2009 at 11:16 a.m. #39

All of this sounds super amazing. This game really is for the fans. THANK YOU CAPCOM!!!!

Posted by PEE-CEE on November 17, 2009 at 12:39 p.m. #40

PC RELEEEEASE!

Posted by PHUCK YOU 日本 on November 17, 2009 at 2:38 p.m. #41

PHUCK ONLINE MODES

NEW CHARACTERS NAO GODDAMNIT

I MEAN: PHUCK!

Posted by Crimson on November 17, 2009 at 3:03 p.m. #42

Shiozaki is funny, lol.

The others on the team seem like very nice people and very hard workers.

As for the new characters, I can wait until they announce those. It is nice to see what thoughts were put into this project as a whole.

Posted by word up on November 17, 2009 at 3:44 p.m. #43

for realz..stop wit the online b.s...im tryin to see the new characters and a possible turbo gameplay..

Posted by Digital- on November 17, 2009 at 3:51 p.m. #44

Man I couldn't care less if it came out on pc now. Went and bought myself an Xbox360 and now all I have to worry about is connection lag.

On the PC people were playing with wrong video settings and old ass computers so it would lag all the time almost every other match.

Xbox ftw!

Posted by waya121 on November 17, 2009 at 7:03 p.m. #45

Dont care about this as much as the network code. The thing suck balls

Posted by Mabans on November 19, 2009 at 10:06 a.m. #46

My computer runs SF4 fine but I find it funny that the one place that inspired the changes isn't getting the update.